imper.ai, a pioneer in real-time cyber impersonation prevention, today announced its public launch and $28 million in new funding from Redpoint Ventures and Battery Ventures, with participation from Maple VC, Vessy VC, and Cerca Partners. The company’s platform detects impersonation risk in real-time, ensuring privacy and accuracy across the most commonly used communication platforms such as  Zoom, Teams, Slack, and more. imper.ai detects malicious behavior that traditional tools miss by analyzing multiple security signals across network devices and digital personas.

The new funding will accelerate the company’s expansion and mission to stop impersonation (including deepfakes, voice clones, and others)  and social engineering attacks at their source. Enterprises across the finance, healthcare, and technology sectors are already deploying imper.ai’s solution to strengthen trust in digital communications.

A social-engineering ransomware breach at Marks & Spencer halted online orders, disrupted store operations and supply chains, and is now projected to cost the company roughly $380 million in profit this year. The FBI reported that business email compromise scams cost companies $2.8 billion last year alone. We see how deepfakes and voice clones have made impersonation nearly effortless, part of a wave of AI-driven attacks that Deloitte estimates could reach $40 billion in annual losses in the U.S. by 2027. AI-generated fakes and human-driven manipulation have turned identity into the modern attack surface, exposing the limits of identity and content filtering tools.

“AI-driven impersonation has become one of the biggest drivers of financial loss and reputational risk for enterprises,” said Noam Awadish, Co-Founder and CEO of imper.ai. “Gartner expects that by 2027, half of all enterprises will invest in anti-deepfake and disinformation-security tools, a clear sign this is no longer a niche issue. We built imper.ai to help CISOs strengthen their defenses and focus on prevention instead of crisis response.”

Founded by cyber-intelligence veterans Noam Awadish (CEO, formerly Chief of Staff to the EVP of Autonomous Vehicles at  Mobileye), Anatoly Blighovsky (CPO, former head of 2 cyber divisions and CISO of elite intelligence unit 8200), and Rom Dudkiewicz (CTO, vulnerability researcher and section leader at elite intelligence unit 8200), imper.ai delivers real-time impersonation detection and prevention at the first point of contact, across video, phone, or chat. Rather than scanning content for irregularities, it scans and analyzes the digital breadcrumbs attackers cannot fake: device telemetry, network diagnostics, and behavioral markers cross-referenced with unique organizational knowledge. Unlike tools that scan content for anomalies, imper.ai’s first-of-its-kind agentless platform runs silently across systems such as Zoom, Teams, Slack, WhatsApp, Google Workspace, ATS, and IT Help Desk systems, enabling trust without disrupting workflows.

“Social engineering attacks have become one of the toughest challenges in cybersecurity because people can no longer tell who’s real and who’s not,” said Erica Brescia, Managing Director at Redpoint Ventures. “What stood out about imper.ai is how naturally it solves that problem. It gives companies the confidence that every call, message, and interaction is authentic, protecting trust, privacy, and business continuity at the same time.”

“Impersonation isn’t just a feature of modern attacks – it’s becoming the primary threat vector,” said Barak Schoster, partner at Battery Ventures, and board member of imper.ai. “imper.ai  is building what we believe will be a foundational layer of enterprise security: real-time verification at the point where human trust is most vulnerable. This is a category-defining company in the making. We’re proud to back this exceptional team.”